Abstract:
Three purposes of this research were 1) to develop a conceptual framework in the field of music education. 2) to evaluate and compare the research quality in music education among research reports having different characteristic. 3) to estimate and compare the effect size of the research results based on characteristics of the quantitative researches and to synthesize qualitative researches with content analysis. The research to be synthesized were 129 research reports, consisted of 62 quantitative and 67 qualitative research reports published in 1973 2007. Data for this research consisted of 159 values of effect sizes and 49 variables pertaining to research characteristics. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, regression analysis, HLM analysis and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of research synthesis were: 1. The developed conceptual framework in the field of music education consisted of 5 interrelated factors; namely: context of music education, management/supervision of music education, music education research, music education and music learning achievement. 2. The quality evaluation result of the music education research reports revealed that the total quality of the quantitative research reports were very good and those of the qualitative research reports were good. The research characteristics factors accounted for the difference in the research quality means were: the faculty and the areas producing the research report, research design, sampling method, quality of instrument, and type of data analysis. 3. The mean of 62 effect sizes measuring at the research level was 2.383, and the mean of 159 effect size measuring at the hypothesis test level was 1.422. The characteristics of research accounting for the differences of effect size estimators were the samples educational level, instrument type, year completed, type of hypothesis, status of samples, the research design, sampling, quality of instrument, and data analysis method. 4. The results from 6 aspects of content analysis were 1) History / culture of music skill transmit indicated that the students imitated from the teachers; 2) For music curriculum, there should be the management of extra curricular activities or develop/analyze the music curriculum for students learning development; 3) For music education, instructional media development / instructional model / music activities/ participation of community / reasonable budget affected to learning achievement.; 4) For measurement and evaluation of music education, research for test analysis/curriculum evaluation; 5) Management of music activities, the administrators, teachers and students participated in the management; and 6) Music profession, there were 2 objectives of producing musician and producing the music teachers.